


Drowning In Bliss

by AkashiroSei (LovingPillow)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Complete, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 19:46:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13724703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LovingPillow/pseuds/AkashiroSei
Summary: She grew an unhealthy obsession with stuffed animals: they were cute, they were adorable, and they were incapable of talking, so they wouldn’t call her names or say bad things. She was fine just living in a world where she didn’t have to deal with such bullshit, and if she had her way, she’d make sure nobody would bug her about it either.





	Drowning In Bliss

She’d first laid eyes on them when her mother was taking her out to daycare, and she pleaded with her mother to get the stuffed animal. It was a pink bear with smiling eyes and fluffy fur with a wide, round belly.

She fell in love.

And from there it got better.

Her collection grew and soon her room was filled with the lot of them. From bunnies to giraffes to sharks to whatever animal that the toy makers of Konoha managed to produce, she would set her eyes on all of them.

Her mother would shake her head anytime she caught sight of a stuffed animal, and her father would be the one to pay for it whenever she’d tug on the leg of his trouser to ask if he could get it for her.

Neither would mention how she was growing too old for toys (the last time her mother tried to throw away her beloved collection, she’d gotten a little feisty, and even now the walls were embedded with the marks of her kunai).

She was a growing ninja, although she only transferred into the academy, but that didn’t make it okay for them to take her obsession away.

Wasn’t it better than being obsessed over a boy? The so-called eye-candy of her year wasn’t as cute or as adorable or as fluffy as her pink, pink bear, so she didn’t see why the other girls liked him so much.

And speaking of her pink, pink bear, she had named him Kuma-chan (for her lack of creativity, but it suited him perfectly fine since he was a bear).

But then she saw Chōji, and she couldn’t resist going up to him with Kuma-chan in tow and asking if she could hug him.

He became her first friend from that point on, and he was the only one outside of her parents who made it to her list of people she did like.

Because she didn’t like people that much, not when all they did was hurt her with their words.

She never met Shikamaru or Ino, the two that Chōji was childhood friends with, but she didn’t want to meet them anyway. She wasn’t going to make exceptions for people that would hurt others because she’d heard of Ino before (a bully who bullied bullies whenever she’d catch them bullying others), and she’d heard of Shikamaru (he never spoke up for people and never interfered when people were being bullied).

In a way, she was much like Shikamaru because they both didn’t interfere, but that didn’t mean she thought he was okay.

Her mother, when she’d returned with Kuma-chan and Chōji-kun in tow, welcomed her home.

“Wow!” Chōji exclaimed as he looked around the room full of stuffed animals.

Sakura grinned widely and made some space for her and Chōji to sit near the table, “Isn’t it amazing?” she asked, hugging her bear as Chōji reached out to hug her stuffed shark.

“It...really is,” Chōji whispered, and he continued to stare and count, stare and count, until he had to crane his neck just to continue to stare and count.

“Refreshments?” Mebuki called out as she carefully opened the door, and she smiled down at her child and her friend.

They were pretty adorable surrounded by stuffed animals, although it did worry her to see how many Sakura had collected over the years.

And Sakura still wanted more.

When the two graduated from the academy, Sakura was put into Team 7 and Chōji into Team 10.

It took her sensei’s summons of nin-ken to physically stop her from mangling Naruto’s head when he got paint on her Kuma-chan.

A new stuffed animal had appeased her, but only slightly, however, so Naruto was quick to hide around Sasuke’s side whenever she eyed him with her teeth bared.

“I’m sure we could all get along,” was Kakashi-sensei’s way of saying they needed to get over it.

And it had taken Chōji’s interference for her to accept his apology many weeks later.

Naruto could only thank him by paying for dinner, and he vowed never again because all his money went into Chōji’s belly.


End file.
